Argentina let a two-goal lead slip after the 82nd minute, but Emi Martinez’s shootout heroics ensured they bested the Dutch for a spot in the semis.
— Argentina booked their semifinal spot at the World Cup after edging past the Netherlands 4-3 on penalties on Friday night.
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Lionel Scaloni’s side went 2-0 up heading into the final stages of the match thanks to two pieces of Lionel Messi brilliance. First he set up Nahuel Molina’s opener, and then slotted home a second-half penalty.
The Dutch fought back, though, with substitute Wout Weghorst planting a header past Emiliano Martinez in the 83rd minute before finishing off a perfectly planned free-kick routine in the 90+11th minute to score a well-deserved equaliser. Extra-time was a tense affair, but it was the Albiceleste who edged out the Netherlands on penalties with Martinez the hero.
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In a World Cup of upsets, shock results and penalty shootout heroics, this looked to be one of the more straightforward outliers, until the madness of injury time. The first half was a fairly drab affair, until Messi opened it up with a ridiculous reverse pass. He drifted along the edge of the Netherlands box, and with one flick, took four Dutch defenders out of the play and found the onrushing Molina who had space to side-foot it past Andries Noppert.
When Messi added a second from the penalty spot, it looked like Argentina were home free.
But then came the 15 minutes of Dutch brilliance to close out the 90 minutes. Weghorst’s header was planted brilliantly past Martinez with seven minutes of normal time remaining, and then in the 10th minute of injury time, they conjured one of the best set pieces to grace any World Cup for Weghorst’s second. Scripts had been ripped up, match reports rewritten, and all because of Dutch intensity and pressure.
At this stage, referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz had already lost control of the match, and it was fitting there was a second melee to finish off regular time. The contest had already descended into a pushing match just moments before when Leandro Paredes hammered a ball into the Dutch dugout after committing a foul.
By the end of the night, Lahoz had handed out 17 yellow cards — how there wasn’t a red card in the match was bewildering — and there seemed to be little to no consistency in his calls. Handballs went missing — including a blatant one by Messi in the 55h minute — and he managed to make himself the centre of attention.
Eventually, Argentina emerged from the madness with a victory and a place in the semifinals.
